The dock walls to which the invention pertains are of the gravity, autostabilized-type whereby fill material positioned behind the wall is used to both retain the wall structure (by exerting a force on the footing of the L-shaped wall member) and form the horizontal ground surface of access from the shoreline to the dock face.
At present, concrete gravity-type walls are commonly constructed either in place (at the intended location) behind a very expensive shelter (i.e. cofferdam) or are built on land remote from the intended location and later positioned into place using cranes positioned on land or on barges.
In either of these cases, the floor or bed of the body of water is usually excavated or dredged to provide a horizontal surface on which a layer of crushed stone is placed and graded to form a smooth horizontal surface on which the base of the L-shaped wall member rests. This is known as the mattress.
In either of these cases, the concrete is formed and poured in two stages: first, the base is poured as a flat horizontal slab parallel to the ground, and second, the wall is vertically formed adjacent to the slab using appropriate formwork and supports such that the wall extends at substantially right angles to the base slab. Thus, this method necessitates the cost of vertically forming, pouring and stripping the wall which adds expense to the process and requires greater degrees of skilled tradespersons.
The present invention provides a new approach to building gravity stabilized seawalls and dock faces for marine terminal and marina installations which avoids these problems and reduces construction costs.